What started as a personal journey of a doctor turned patient morphed into a way to share what’s universal in dealing with cancer, in my case a nasty leukemia (CLL), a failed transplant and a successful clinical trial. The telling of my journey has become a journey to teach about CLL, related blood issues and all cancers. Please visit our new website http://cllsociety.org for the latest news and information. Smart patients get smart care™. If you want to reach me, email bkoffmanMD@gmail.com

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Maybe I missed the kiss of a spider? Woke up yesterday with a welt on my chest. When I prepared for bed last night, it had grown 2 jagged lines extending in opposite directions, like spider legs or lightning bolts.

To me that means lymphangitis. An infection from a bacteria in the fangs of the filthy mouthed arthropod or maybe on my colonized skin that the creature injected as it bit me. Now it's careening through my lymphatic system on its way to creating septic havoc on my immunocompromised body. I can get pretty dramatic.

Do I call City of Hope more than 4o miles away? The thought of what germs I might encounter in a local ER on a Saturday night scares me more than my rash so that isn't in the cards.

Instead I decide to smother it with Bactroban ointment (a very good topical antibiotic) and positive affirmations and wait to see what the morning brings.

Since there was no trip to the hospital, I had the chance to work all day on the Zoster paper. There I found a surprise with a big CLL connection which I will share as soon as get a few more facts. Who would have though a paper on shingles would push all my CLL buttons. In a good way.

2 Comments:

Be careful and keep an eye on that. I too had been bit by a spider, a black widow. I was bit on the forearm and had the “”Traveling Line” towards my heart within a few hours. I went to the emergency room a few hours later and the doctor had to withdraw the puss from my arm with a syringe. I was 18 years old at the time and I remember no hair grew in the vicinity of the bit for 3 years.

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About Me

BkoffmanMD@gmail.com
A family doc and husband of 1 and father of 4 and grandfather of 3 who loves his family and his work. I live with no TV and no microwave, but wouldn't last a minute without friends, art, music, books and the beach. Hockey, good jokes and exotic travel are pretty important too. Writing, Talmud and Zen give meaning to my life. My diet is organic vegan, often raw. I hope the blog makes the load lighter and the path both safer and more fun for those who read it or are going to similar places. I want to help. I crave your comments. If you are new to the blog, check out the portrait my son Will painted (it is the first post), and my very first text post.